African insurance regulators have agreed on measures aimed at reducing regulatory fragmentation and strengthening oversight of an increasingly interconnected regional insurance market.
The decisions were reached during meetings of the East African Insurance Supervisors Association (EAISA) in Nairobi, bringing together regulators from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Discussions focused on regulatory harmonization, consumer protection and technology-enabled supervision across the East African Community.
The adoption of a harmonized Insurance Core Principles assessment template intended to provide regulators with a common basis for assessing supervisory standards, identifying regulatory gaps and promoting peer learning was among the key adoptions.
EAISA Interim Chairman Dr. Protazio Sande who is also Acting Chief Executive Officer of Uganda’s Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), said the objective was to create greater consistency while allowing regulators to benchmark their respective markets.
“We have agreed to harmonize a template so that we can do assessment at country level, but also compare with our peers,” Dr. Sande said.
Kenya’s Commissioner of Insurance Mr. Godfrey Kiptum said closer alignment would also ease compliance for insurers operating across several East African markets.
“Having common regulations will make compliance easier for insurance companies operating across multiple EAC countries,” said Mr. Kiptum.
The regulators also approved further development of the Regional Integrated Insurance Supervisory Software (RIISS) to improve information-sharing and technology-enabled supervision. They backed common minimum standards for complaints management, more comparable market data and a harmonized approach to digital transformation.
Significantly, EAISA also approved development of a harmonized EAC Insurance Sandbox Regulatory Framework designed to support responsible innovation and greater regulatory cooperation as digital insurance models expand across borders.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Ms. Francesca Kakooza, IRA’s Director Legal, said the reforms are expected to support more consistent protection across jurisdictions, while insurers operating regionally could benefit from greater regulatory predictability.
IRA’s Senior Research Officer Mr. Marcos Erimu said the Nairobi resolutions ultimately point towards a broader ambition of an East African insurance market supervised through more coordinated, data-driven and technology-enabled regulatory systems, capable of responding to increasingly cross-border risks.